


Empty Sky, Rippling Sea

by nociception



Category: Magic: The Gathering
Genre: F/F, one sided (maybe)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-23
Updated: 2016-02-23
Packaged: 2018-05-22 17:37:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,588
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6088519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nociception/pseuds/nociception
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This happens immediately after Beneath The Surface. The two merfolk were afforded a brief window of respite after retrieving Kiora’s bident. Tired and contemplative, Jori En thinks about what she has just witnessed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Empty Sky, Rippling Sea

**Author's Note:**

> Unbeta'd and written on a cold night, as per usual. I don't know anything about merfolk physiology I just wanted to write fish girlfriends.

Jori tilted her head back and allowed the tang of salt to filter through her gills. She didn’t think she was the claustrophobic type; she was a ruin diver after all. She was used to tight spaces and the lack of light, but what she had just experienced with Kiora in the quest to retrieve her bident was something else all together. Fighting off Kozilek’s brood and then the horde of goblins after that was something she could do without on a normal day, but in these circumstances she doubly wanted nothing to do with them. 

She watched the waves drifting in and out slowly over the eroded rock at her feet and Jori matched her breathing to the undulation to calm herself down. She needed to think with a clear head now that they weren’t in any immediate danger. 

If she didn’t know any better, it would seem like any normal day in Zendikar and she would be with her fellow merfolk investigating the newly eroded rock. The waters were blue, darker than what would be expected but nothing unusual. Nothing that would impede any investigations as long as the visibility held up. Before the sun would set, they would make headway in plotting the lay of the land. Jori would do what she did best - investigate and come back with news as to whether it was worth their time or not. 

That was the Zendikar she was protecting, the Zendikar whose waters were everything a merfolk could ask for and more. The Zendikar which held its history and knowledge within itself. 

But she knew better than to mull on the tranquility of the waves. Jori knew that beyond this patch of ocean where the bident held its immediate dominion, the water was polluted with the bodies of the dead and the fetid from this world and beyond. She shuddered just thinking about it, for waking up in that water was not a pleasant experience. 

Now that she had recovered from the experience, Jori turned her attention to Kiora. When they had emerged from their earthen confinements, she saw Kiora take two steps towards the open ocean before collapsing. Jori remembered that much, before she felt her own legs collapsing as well. 

Her legs felt more stable and she stood up to have a look.  Kiora was perched in a rather ungainly manner on a rocky shoal that had opened up, half her body in the water. She had just done the unthinkable and was paying the price for it. She had her head tilted upwards, her eyes closed and her face scrunched in a combination of pain and relief. Despite all of this, the bident was clutched tightly in her hand. It glowed with the blue iridescence of a foreign starfield that captivated Jori so. If Kiora would let her, she would devote a considerable amount of time to studying the bident. She initially was sceptical of its power and what it was capable of, because it was just a weapon. Enchanted as it was, a weapon had no power on its own. Or at least, Jori’s experiences with Kor weaponry had led her to believe as much.

She didn’t like being proved wrong at the best of times, but for this, she’ll make an exception. 

Her eyes scanned over Kiora and the area around her. Jori couldn’t read minds, but she had a number of educated guesses as to what had happened here. The surge of power that was needed to control the ocean was seemingly too much for the injured and panicked Kiora and now that the rush of having retrieved the bident had worn down, her body had immediately began to feel the consequences. Having your bones broken and mended in a short space of time can put enormous strain even on the hardiest of bodies. 

But Jori knew Kiora was a hardy one, and soon she would be up and ready to continue the fight. For now, she needed the moment of rest.

She pulled Kiora’s body out of the awkward position it was in on the shoal and straightened her out as much as she could. It was hard to do when Kiora had a death grip on the bident and Jori knew better than to try to remove the bident from her hands. After a number of moments of awkwardly trying to rearrange her with this impediment in mind, Jori finally managed to put Kiora laying straight on the rock. 

Jori let out the breath she didn’t realise she was holding in as she slid down to her knees next to Kiora’s head. Kiora barely stirred throughout the entire time Jori was rearranging her. Retrieving this bident and using it really took it out of her, huh? But at least it didn’t seem like anything was broken this time around and that was enough for her. Her breathing was regular and the worrying grip on the bident aside, Kiora seemed fine. Tired, but fine.

What a situation they were in. Jori felt like an exalted caretaker. If she was going to be a caretaker, she might as well go the whole way and nurse her back properly. She laid a hand on the top of Kiora’s head, resting it on her lap. What trouble she had been. If Jori hadn’t just witnessed the power of the bident herself, she would have had other thoughts about Kiora going this far and wearing herself out this much.

“What manner of power have you bore witness to, Kiora?” mused Jori as she felt the shape of the fin in between her own fingers. Unlike her own fins, Kiora’s felt more elegant and somewhat more majestic. “I’m sure you must have angered someone along the way. But that’s just like you, isn’t it? It’s why I followed you this far.”  

“Mmm.” 

Jori’s eyes widened. Was Kiora finally awakening? 

“Hnnnn.”

Kiora stirred in Jori’s lap, but remained unconscious.

Jori let out another breath she didn’t know she was holding in. She let herself hear the sound of the waves again before continuing with her thoughs.

“Soon, I’ll have to wake you properly and we must continue the fight for Zendikar. It’s been one thing after another and if I weren’t seeing it myself, I would think it was just some grand illusion.”

She looked up to the opposite shore. This was the shore that she had seen on their way here where Kozilek had stripped the land and revealed the prismatic layers of rock underneath. The land pulsed with mana, flowing freely despite the warping of the land. Jori remembered old folk tales, where mythical beings would be drawn to the magical energy of the changing land? Were the elders talking about the Eldrazi when they described that happening?

Yet despite how beautiful it was, it was deeply unnatural and it worried Jori En. Her eyes were drawn to the irregular geometries yet it repulsed her at the same time to think about it. What effect it would have on the land above and the sea below? That stretch of shore was now unhospitable and foreign, devoid of any life. Would life ever come back to it?

“Are you done looking at the rocks?” came a hoarse and familiar voice from Jori’s lap. Jori felt a jolt up her back and she looked down to see a bleary eyed Kiora looking back up at her. “I suppose those rocks won’t stay that way forever once we get rid of the Eldrazi.” 

“Kiora.” began Jori as she pulled her hand away from Kiora’s fins. “We should go.”  

“In a hurry already?” said Kiora as she sat up, looking Jori straight in the eye. “I quite enjoyed your lap, it made a comfortable pillow.”

Jori bristled and looked away, her hands in her lap which was now devoid of Kiora’s head. It felt strangely empty. She had to push these thoughts aside, they had work to do. They had to get to the fight and they had to help everyone. This was no time to be thinking about Kiora or her bident or how frustrating she was to deal with.

  “Fine, be silent while I’m paying you a compliment.” Jori looked up to see Kiora was standing with one hand on her hip, the other holding the bident.   “What am I supposed to say - congratulations on your survival?” 

Kiora tilted her head at Jori’s retort and laughed. The sound echoed around them as if carried by the wind and Jori stood just a bit straighter. She faced Kiora and looked her straight in the eye.  “I want to save this land as much as you. But I don’t have whatever it is you’ve been bestowed with. As much as I don’t want to say it, your bident is the best chance we have.”   

“You don’t need what I have.” said Kiora in response, flatly. “I, we -“ She was quick to correct herself. “- need what you have. Your knowledge and persistence. The bident is a bonus made necessity in this fight.”

Was Kiora paying her a compliment? It was hard to tell sometimes with her. But she will take that response, for all it was worth.  “Shall we make our way?” Jori looked to the distance as she spoke, where she could see the horizon distorting. Time was not on their side, it never was. But now, they might have a chance.

“Yes, let’s.” Kiora smiled, for the first time in a while. “Come, Jori. Zendikar needs us.”


End file.
